Fantasy Coffins from Ghana

A burial in Ghana is by no means an ordinary one. That's because each coffin is a small art work, reflecting the fantasy of the local craftsmen. The local habit forces the family to spend a lot with the "throne" (coffin) so that to commemorate and tell the life story of the deceased person. Craftsmen around Accra, the capital of Ghana, specialized in making wooden imaginative coffins for this purpose. The coffins usually speak about a detail, a significant fact, a symbol of the dead, illustrating the profession, hobbies, social status of the dead.

Making a coffin can take a month, but its expressiveness is what does count. Meanwhile, the body of the dead is preserved at the morgue. A remarkable work can mean the wedge of a Ghanaian for one year. It can be said that a Ghanaian works to gain enough money so that he/she will be buried with great pomp. And with all these, the coffin makers have a lot of demands, even from outside Ghana.